


Matched

by JunieBug



Series: Spring Marathon Ficlets [5]
Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Online Dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JunieBug/pseuds/JunieBug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laurel's forced into the world on online dating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matched

“Wait, wait, what does that say? Michaela! What did that say!?” Laurel tries to grab for her phone from Michaela’s hands but fails miserably. 

“Don’t worry! I’m just adding to your profile so you can get more matches.” Michaela hands back her phone and folds her hands together, looking completely pleased with herself. Laurel rolls her eyes and swipes through her profile. 

Michaela had begged her to get on tinder which up until now Laurel had confused with Grindr. And just to get her off her back, she agreed to creating a profile. Which she might be regretting now.

Her first picture is of her, a selfie, and then it’s a picture of her in the library, candid and taken by Michaela when she was on her photography phase. She swipes again and scrunches up her face. It’s her in a bikini during spring break this past year, a huge ass grin on her face probably from laughing at Asher on the other side of the camera. 

She scoffs though. “Really Michaela?”

Michaela just shrugs. “It’ll get you more matches.” 

“Shouldn’t my bio do that for me?” She scrolls down to read the bio that Michaela had written out for her.

_25._

_Law student._

_Don’t be fooled, the quiet ones are usually the most dangerous._

_Florida to Philly._

_Feel free to send a message._

Michaela was so corny. “That’s not the point of tinder Lau, you’re supposed to not show too much but show enough to get a match.”

Laurel wasn’t gonna lie, she was interested in what type of guys would match up with her. And it was stupid but did she really have to compromise herself to get matches on a stupid dating app? Maybe. 

“And what happens when I get these matches or whatever?” She says out loud and before Michaela can answer, a deep voice speaks up. “You chat with ‘em, go on a date with ‘em.” Laurel and Michaela both look up to find Frank the bartender filling up their drinks again, a small smile on his face. 

They frequent this bar so often that Frank’s basically their buddy here, more or less. His blue eyes catch Laurel’s when he says the word “date.” 

“‘Sides, you two always take up space at my bar and never tip well.” Frank wipes down the countertop and leans forward to look over at her phone. “Cute pictures, didn’t think you had fun outside of here.” 

Laurel flicks him off, teasing but slightly annoyed, and Frank just shakes his head and laughs and moves on to the other people around. Michaela draws back her attention by reaching for her phone. “Swipe left if you don’t like the guy, right if you do.” 

Laurel takes her phone back and reluctantly starts swiping her thumb across the screen.

–

Her first date with a guy from tinder sucks. His pictures were cute, he had a puppy in one of them, and he was a Med student at Penn State. 

He also had no idea how to talk about anything but himself. In just five minutes, Laurel has learned more about Kyle than she needed to know. Or wait. What was his name again? Kyle or Keith? 

Whatever it was Laurel left early, claiming that she had an emergency with her nonexistent pet, and hightailed out of there to head to the bar.

Where Frank was currently making fun of her. The bar was unusually slow tonight, just her and a couple on the other side of the bar. “What’d ya expect? He’s a Med student,” He pauses to smirk at her, “They’re even worse than Law students, which is pretty tough to beat.” 

Laurel makes a face at him but she can’t deny how right he actually is. “Law students are definitely not as bad as dropouts.” She teases him. 

“But I do have another date, next week. Seems nice enough, Michaela basically set it up.” She twirls the straw in a circle around her drink. Frank raises an eyebrow, unbelieving. That same look he gives her when she says that her last drink is indeed her last. 

“Michaela can barely set up a ride home let alone a blind date.” He jokes.

And he’s right. 

Her next date is a disaster. 

The guy brought her to a Five Guys and honestly didn’t look anything like his profile pictures. She tried to get out of the date as quickly as she could and when he asked to take her back to his place, she all but ran back to her car. She didn’t even bother making up some lame excuse as to why she had to leave.

Frank was doubled over when she told him. “It’s not funny Frank!” She’s playing with her straw again and when Frank doesn’t stop laughing she throws peanut shells at him.

“I-I’m sorry but you,” He can barely form the sentence he’s laughing so hard, “You were catfished!” 

She throws another peanut at his face. “He could’ve kidnapped me!” And Frank suddenly sobers up and clears the peanuts from the counter. He leans forward and looks her straight in the eyes. She feels the heat rise up in her cheeks from how close his face is to hers. “If that ever happens again, call me and I’ll come getcha.” 

He leans back again and points to her drink but she shakes her head no to more. The tension leaves her shoulders and she didn’t even realize that how tense she was. Or how scared she was about how dangerous meeting strangers could be. 

“Gimme your phone.” Frank holds out his hand. 

She clutches it close to her chest. “Why?” He raises his eyebrows up and down, still holding out his hand. “Michaela doesn’t know how to pick guys, I’ll swipe for you.” Laurel almost laughs at how determined he looks when she eventually hands him her phone. 

They both are leaning close to each other, the bar tonight is empty, and it’s just the two of them laughing at some of the profiles and pictures. 

Frank is swipe happy and Laurel is appalled by some of the guys that he swipes right for. “Trust me, I know how to pick ‘em.”

Frank’s right again. Her third date seemed promising.

Finn was unbelievably cute and sweet. Opening the car door for her and pulling out her chair. They chatted about life. He was working in a company, a desk job. He talked about his family and she only mentioned hers. 

She was enamoured. Maybe online dating wasn’t too bad and that third time really is the charm. And then: 

“So, are we going to your place or mine?” 

He asks her as soon as they walk out of the restaurant and it takes her aback. “What?” Maybe for some drinks or something right? Finn, sweet and lovable and geeky, isn’t really insinuating what she thought he was. 

“That’s how tinder works, we go out and then get in bed together.” 

He says it like it’s something that has been negotiated. Laurel folds her arms, the spring air suddenly biting cold. 

“No, that’s not how that works. I want to go home.” And she thinks he’s gonna fight her but he doesn’t. Instead it’s a silent car ride back to her building and she swears she hears him call her a bitch as she gets out of the car. 

–

She didn’t go the bar after her date with Finn. She was there almost every night now and she decided to focus on work. Which worked for a few nights but then she was back at the Lucky Quarter. 

She waves Frank down and he ignores her, taking orders from the other customers around her. It’s a Friday, the counter is packed with all these people trying to loosen up from the week. It’s Frank’s busiest night of the week and he usually left her last on his list of people to tend to. 

But after tending to everyone at the counter, he still ignored her. 

Laurel furrowed her brows together and waved him down again. “Frank. Hey, Frank!” He finally looks over at her and eventually makes his way to where she’s sitting. 

He’s already poured her drink and slides it across to her when he speaks up over the music to talk to her. “Had a good date with that Finn guy?” 

She sips from her straw before she answers. “Huh?” 

“You didn’t come back to the bar that night, thought you took him home.” 

Laurel tries to read his face and all she sees is jealousy. Huh, Frank Delfino is- jealous? He’s about to move on, go to the next person, but then she pipes up. 

“He was nice at first but I certainly did not take him home.” 

Frank looks back at her. “Yeah, total egg head, not my type. Guess you suck at matching me to people too.” 

She laughs, online dating is definitely not her thing. But she watches as Frank pulls out his phone, forgetting he’s at work right now. 

He leans forward and so does she. Frank pulls up the tinder app on his own phone and presses the ‘sign up’ button. “What’re you doing?” 

He looks up at her, their faces almost inches away from each other. They’re both smiling and Laurel doesn’t really know why. 

“I’m signing up for tinder.” Frank answers nonchalantly, typing away at his phone. She watches him for a few seconds but then takes her hand and places it over his to stop his typing. 

“Hey, I’m signing up!” But neither of them budge. And like an afterthought, Frank says, “Maybe we’ll match up with each other or something.”

And Laurel smiles before she successfully takes his phone away from him and closes the app. She quickly deletes it from his phone. “I think we already do.” 

And Frank’s shit eating grin makes her giggle before she, herself, deletes tinder from her phone. 

 


End file.
